Learning To Love

"Learning To Love" series starts today at 11am and every Sunday in January, but If you think you are in for four weeks of warm fuzzy sermons, think again! God's command to love is one of the most challenging in the bible. Consider these:

• Love your ENEMIES
• Love your wife like Christ lives the church and DIED for it.
• (By the way, no intended connection between enemy and wife) :-)

But the greatest thing about love is that God said "Love NEVER fails!"

See you at 11! Follow @ddevonshire

The Cold Within

Six humans trapped by happenstance in black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood (or so the story’s told).

Their dying fire, in need of logs, the first woman held hers back,
For on the faces around the fire, she noticed one was black.

The second, looking across the way, saw one not of his church,
And couldn’t bring himself to give the fire his stick of birch.

The poor man sat in tattered clothes, he gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use to warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge as the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood was a chance to spite the white.

And the last of this forlorn group did not accept for gain:
Giving only to those who gave was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in deaths’ still cold hands was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without, They died from the cold within.


This poem was written in the 1920’s by James Patrick Kinney

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The Other Side

(rough draft notes for a recent message)

Mar 4:35  And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

This side was good, we learned, we listened, we grew, but now it is time to go and use what we learned. It is time to put the preaching into practice. 

Old Testament…

Deu. 2:3  Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.

They had been circling this mountain, this same mountain, for far too long.

What mountain of a problem have you been circling, staring at, for way too long?
You may be tired of the view, and tired of the travel, but if you are going to get out of this rut, you are going to have to turn!  You can't do the same thing and expect different results!

Next levels don't come by accident,

They come on purpose and by purpose.

Persistence breaks resistance!

You must say I am going up!

I am thankful for what I have learned, but there is something greater.

God has given me a yearning for more and He never teases us with a desire without being willing to fulfill it if we respond.

Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethesda "Wilt thou be made whole…."
He didn't ask that to tease the man and disappoint him, but to stir up a desire, to fan the flame of faith, to get him thinking about healing instead of handicaps!

Here is the problem..

Next levels, Other sides, new dimensions,  only come by passing through the problem.

You can't grow without the challenge.

You can't increase without a desire and a determination.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

If you want it you have got to be determined to get it.

You can't cut back and go up

You can't slow down and go farther

You can't find Him with half a heart

To go up…you must give up…

It's ok if you want to be mediocre or just plain awful, but to go up you must sacrifice!

He had purpose! Where did that purpose come from?

He had peace in the storm

What made the difference?

Both the disciples and Jesus were on the same boat and dealing with the same storm,

One slept and the other wept (cried)

One rested others restless

One snoozed the others accused

What made the difference?

Faith!  Yes

But where did that faith come from? That power?

When He awoke, He stood and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still!

Be Calm, Be muzzled

He tells us to speak to the mountain…get outta my way…

He tells us we have dominion over sin

He tells us we have power over the enemy

He tells us we are victorious through Christ

He tells us we have a sure future

He tells us we are overcomers

He tells us It's not over till God says it's over!

*(It is not dead until we say it is dead!)

Where does this

Purpose

Peace

Power

Come from?

At the beginning of Jesus ministry, before He did a miracle, before He preached a message,

He was filled with the Holy Spirit!

Here is the good news,

That same Spirit,

That one that created the world

That did the miracles

That has creative and redemptive power

That Spirit that can make something out of nothing, wants and desires to be in you and make His abode, His dwelling, His living space in you!

Then, when we are filled with that same power

We will have a purpose that says I am going over

I am going through

I am going on

I can't turn back

Though none go with me still I will follow

We will have a peace that says worry is of the devil

Worry is faith in the enemy

I won't worry, I will pray I will trust in Him

He has never let me down.

I can sleep in the storm

We will have a power that says get outta my way!

Be healed

Be reconciled

Be forgiven

Be like Jesus!

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Isn't that great work by the Printshop?  and even greater work by our God who set us free!

(Joh 8:36)  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

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On Soulwinning...

In Gipsy Smith's book The Beauty of Jesus, Gipsy Smith told about Peter Apples, a man (during the Civil War) who went into the enemy's territory. Peter Apples did not know much about being a good soldier. He just knew that when his superior officer said, "Charge!" he was supposed to go. And he was the kind of man who never came back until he made contact with the enemy. 

One day his officer said, "Charge!" Peter Apples charged. But they came under such severe fire that the superior officer asked them to retreat, to come back. Peter Apples didn't hear that, so he kept going. He went across "No-Man's Land" and finally into the enemy's territory. He went down in a ditch where the enemy soldiers were lined up one behind the other, took hold of the first one in the ditch, grabbed him by the nape of the neck, drug him out and started back toward home with him.

The enemy soldiers took aim and started to shoot, but since their own soldier was being dragged behind Peter Apples, they couldn't fire. About the time they thought they had a shot, their own soldier would get in the way again. Peter Apples continued to travel with the soldier. Finally he dragged him across "No-Man's Land" and back into his own territory and dropped him at the feet of his superior officer.

The officer looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, "Where in the world did you get him?" He answered, "I got him over there in the ditch. There's plenty of them over there, and all of you could have had one if you had wanted one."  Follow @ddevonshire

A Quarter At A Time

We think giving our all to the Lord

is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table—

“Here's my life, Lord. I'm giving it all.”

But the reality for most of us

is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters.

We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there.

Listen to the neighbor kid's troubles instead of saying, “Get lost.”

Go to a committee meeting.

Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home.

Usually giving our life to Christ isn't glorious.

It's done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.

It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory;

it's harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.

--Fred Craddock

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The Power Will Be On

I read a story recently that I thought was worth passing on: 


The organ in a large church broke down one Sunday morning just before services were to begin. A member of the congregation happened to be a organ repairman and he immediately went to work on the instrument – finding it was a simple electrical problem. When he finally got it fixed it was just about the middle of the sermon. He quietly passed a note to the organist which read: "After prayer - the power will be on."


After prayer!  We always want the crown, but not the cross, we want the power but not the prayer, yet it is still true today, "After Prayer, the power will be on!"

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Easter Poster

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Jesus as...

Jesus as Priest represents man before God.
Jesus as Prophet represents God before man.

Jesus as man brings compassion, He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
Jesus as God brings power, power to fix the brokenness!

Jesus as servant washed the disciple’s feet teaching us humility...

Jesus as King says all power is given unto me! Showing us authority.

Jesus as man hungered...

Jesus as God fed five thousand!


Jesus as Preacher said Repent!

Jesus as Savior made a way for us to repent!

Jesus as Lamb was killed for us...

Jesus as Lion will return to rule and reign!

Jesus as Son of Mary submitted Himself to His Parents...Jesus as Son of God submitted Himself to the Father and the death of the cross.

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The Circle Maker

Mark Batterson shared this in an article and I pass it along....

.In the first century B.C., there was a drought in Israel that threatened to destroy that generation. It's the inter-testamental period; the prophets had died off 400 years prior, miracles weren't happening; but there was one man who was famous for praying for rain. His name was Honi the Circle Maker, and let me tell you how he got the name. When the Israelites asked him to pray for rain, he did something curious. He used his staff and drew a circle in the sand, then he knelt in that circle and he prayed, "Sovereign Lord, I swear before Your great name that I will not leave this circle until You send rain." And it began to sprinkle.

Now here's the cool thing, Honi wasn't satisfied. He said, "Not for such rain have I prayed, but for the rain that will fill pits and caverns and cisterns." Then it starts raining so hard there is a flash flood and people have to flee up to the temple mount. So he's still in his circle and again he says, "Not for such rain have I prayed, but for the rain of Your blessing and favor and graciousness." And it starts to rain in perfect moderation.Well, that's prayer! The Sanhedrin threatened to excommunicate him because they thought it was too bold—as if you can't draw a circle and demand something from God. Finally, some saner minds prevailed and Honi was ultimately honored for a prayer they said saved a generation.

So this is a book about drawing prayer circles, and the basic idea is: God honors bold prayers because bold prayers honor God. He loves it when we ask Him to do things we can't possibly do ourselves. I believe that's the way God gets the glory, and that is the story in a nutshell.

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